picture from national archives of singapore
keong saik road which links north bridge road to neil road did not start off as a red-light district in spite of its close proximity to the notorious smith street. i had thought that the prostitute trade was a spill-over from nearby smith street.
according to my friend, this was not the case. keong saik road used to have a concentration of clan associations where well-to-do merchants and businessmen would meet for recreation in the forms of food, gambling and entertainment by women.
some of these women eventually became mistresses of these rich businessmen and were housed in the rooms above the association premises. there, some would stay with an amah (servant), hired by their businessman lovers, to serve them. so, keong saik road became known as the mistresses avenue. (today, which two places in singapore have earned this title?)
the rest of the story is quite familiar. some got bored while waiting for their sugar daddies and so took on other lovers or clients. some, who fell out of favour, were abandoned and they ended up servicing other men to earn a living. the amah ended up as being the mamasan who played the role of soliciting customers for the lady, earning a commission in the process. some of these mamasans eventually bought over the place.
so, in the 60s, keong saik road became a seedy area with brothels located in the 3-storey shophouses on both sides of the road. unlike geylang and desker road, where the protitute dens are on the ground level, at keong saik street, the rooms were originally (and still are?) above the ground level. access to the 2nd and 3rd levels was usually via a side staircase.
my friend tells me that the trade (at keong saik road) is still alive. i did not ask him why he was so sure about it because, during our last exploration of chinatown, we tried to look for evidence that the place was still in business but we could not find any indication. maybe, we did not look hard enough.
